Not until 2001 was this long lost episode discovered in the archives at UCLA, a curious place for it to be found, as none of the pre-Emma Peel entries were ever shown in the US during the 1960s. Not only that, but Patrick Macnee's John Steed is totally absent ("The Far-Distant Dead" was the only other one without him), leaving Ian Hendry's Dr. David Keel to carry the story partnered by Ingrid Hafner's Carol Wilson, who barely figured in the other surviving episodes, "The Frighteners" and the recently rediscovered "Tunnel of Fear." Definitely a lost treasure now happily found, it also completes every appearance of three series veterans, Kenneth J. Warren, Edwin Richfield, and Howard Goorney. Dr. Keel spies a female suicide jumping off a bridge to a watery death, only to later discover that the nameless girl actually died from a fatal injection of barbiturates. Perhaps in a nod to Hendry's previous series POLICE SURGEON, we have a police surgeon examining the corpse, played by David Grey (who later did "All Done with Mirrors"). Accompanied by his faithful nurse, the doctor discovers that the dead woman was a trapeze artist for a circus playing its final night in London, where they insist their star attraction is alive and well, her face swathed in bandages since an 'accidental' fall. All the characters are well drawn, acting uniformly excellent, especially Howard Goorney, later to be seen in "The Undertakers," as the Scotland Yard superintendent who fears he may be coming down with the flu (a rare instance for THE AVENGERS where the police are directly involved). Playing the head villain Stefan is Edwin Richfield, who went on to do five more episodes- "The Removal Men," "The White Elephant," "Too Many Christmas Trees," "Dead Man's Treasure," and "All Done with Mirrors." It is Richfield who provides the one obvious blooper, calling the superintendent "Inspector" before quickly making the correction (the old pros simply carry on!). Kenneth J. Warren plays Zibbo the clown, who recognizes Dr. Keel among the crowd awaiting the arrival of Scotland Yard (he later did "Intercrime," "The Little Wonders," and "Epic"). Playing high wire performer Vera Korsova, the fetching Delena Kidd gets to show off her bare legs in a one piece circus outfit. Appearing unbilled is dwarf actor Skip Martin, playing Otto, Zibbo's clown partner; best known for roles in 1961's "The Hellfire Club" (Peter Cushing), 1964's "The Masque of the Red Death" (Vincent Price), 1973's "Horror Hospital" (Michael Gough), and Hammer's 1971 "Vampire Circus," where his evil clown was a frightening visage. Some sources list Nadja Regin ("From Russia with Love," "Goldfinger") playing Anna Danilov, but the less attractive Mia Karam receives credit in the role. Another source lists Patricia Haines playing the corpse of the trapeze artist, but that is clearly not her in the one close-up. As the following 8 entries have yet to be found, the next available episode is number 15, "The Frighteners," our first glimpse of Patrick Macnee's irreplaceable John Steed.
5 Reviews
An early episode with no sign of Steed
Tweekums22 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
This early episode of 'The Avengers' open with a woman looking for somebody backstage at a circus; she ends up being attacked by a clown. Shortly afterwards another woman jumps from a bridge into the Thames. This is witnessed by Dr David Keel who goes to help when the police pull her out of the water. She is not dead but clearly very unwell. Later on she dies and an examination shows that she had been poisoned rather than drowned. Keel is convinced that he has seen her before. His practice nurse Carol Wilson helps him trawl through newspapers and he eventually finds a photograph of her. She was a trapeze artiste at a visiting foreign circus that is due to leave the next day. Keel and Carol head there and uncover a plot to smuggle the daughter of a scientist who had defected to Britain out of the country. He manages to contact the police but he and Helen are soon caught by the villains and it is fairly obvious that their captors don't plan to leave any witnesses.
Like most viewers who didn't see the series when it first aired my introduction to 'The Avengers' was watching repeats of the 'Emma Peel era' series this is very different. The main differences are that Patrick Macnee doesn't feature at all in this episode and the story feels far more grounded in reality. The story is interesting and there are plenty of threatening moments. Ian Hendry does a fine job as protagonist Dr David Keel; an everyman who finds himself caught up in international intrigue by chance. Ingrid Hafner is also pretty solid as Carol Wilson. The rest of the cast are pretty good too. Overall I really enjoyed this episode; it is a real shame that only a handful of these early episodes survived to be enjoyed today.
Like most viewers who didn't see the series when it first aired my introduction to 'The Avengers' was watching repeats of the 'Emma Peel era' series this is very different. The main differences are that Patrick Macnee doesn't feature at all in this episode and the story feels far more grounded in reality. The story is interesting and there are plenty of threatening moments. Ian Hendry does a fine job as protagonist Dr David Keel; an everyman who finds himself caught up in international intrigue by chance. Ingrid Hafner is also pretty solid as Carol Wilson. The rest of the cast are pretty good too. Overall I really enjoyed this episode; it is a real shame that only a handful of these early episodes survived to be enjoyed today.
An enjoyable early episode.
Sleepin_Dragon1 July 2022
Doctor Keel is called to assist a woman who's apparently dived into The Thames, later it turns out that she's been drugged, Keel takes the initiative, and investigates the death.
I can actually remember the buzz and excitement back in 2001 when this was found, I anxiously waited to see if any Dr Who tapes would then up, I wasn't expecting some years later to have become a fan of this show. Will more ever be found? We can all live in hope.
I enjoyed it, it's intriguing enough, and if course shows many if the societal attitudes that existed at the time, stories of goings on behind the Iron curtain were commonplace, with Soviets presenting a real aura of mystery.
It looks good, it's nicely acted, it's actually rather well paced. It's so different to every other episode of the show that I've seen. I feel like this is an important piece of television, not just in terms of The Avengers, but TV in general.
Ian Hendry does the job of the central character incredibly well, I was expecting Steed, but the character of.
Enjoyable, 7/10.
I can actually remember the buzz and excitement back in 2001 when this was found, I anxiously waited to see if any Dr Who tapes would then up, I wasn't expecting some years later to have become a fan of this show. Will more ever be found? We can all live in hope.
I enjoyed it, it's intriguing enough, and if course shows many if the societal attitudes that existed at the time, stories of goings on behind the Iron curtain were commonplace, with Soviets presenting a real aura of mystery.
It looks good, it's nicely acted, it's actually rather well paced. It's so different to every other episode of the show that I've seen. I feel like this is an important piece of television, not just in terms of The Avengers, but TV in general.
Ian Hendry does the job of the central character incredibly well, I was expecting Steed, but the character of.
Enjoyable, 7/10.
A Night At The Circus
profh-112 October 2022
Warning: Spoilers
An apparent suicide leads Dr. David Keel & his nurse Carol Wilson to investigate a visiting foreign circus, where they find murder, drug abuse, a politically-motivated kidnapping, and 2 more murders if the Police don't arrive in time to help put a stop to it!
Because so many of the "live-on-tape" (and actually "LIVE") episodes of Season 1 were lost, this is actually the first full Ian Hendry episode I've ever seen. Patrick Macnee had the week off, so the nurse got more screen-time to make up for it, and unusually for the show, the Police get directly involved in the mystery. I liked Carol, but I bet she didn't enjoy getting involved in dangerous situations. It strikes me that THE AVENGERS not only was ahead of the curve with regard to spy shows, but with Keel, also, DOCTOR shows. Imagine if Richard Kimble (David Jansen) had been helping the cops instead of being on the run from them for 4 years!
What a collection of familiar faces! The gang-leader was played by Edwin Richfield, who I always most remember as the Navy officer in the DOCTOR WHO story "The Sea Devils". His kill-crazy henchman was Kenneth J. Warren, who was the INSANE movie director in the very 1st AVENGERS episode I ever saw, the outragiously-loopy "Epic". The Police Sergeant was Ivor Salter, who played a similar character on THE SAINT. And among the circus clowns were not only Kenny Baker, but even more recognizable, Skip Martin ("Hop Toad" from Corman's THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH).
I just got the 2009 "Remastered" Season 2 box set from Studio Canal (Region 2 only, necessitating I finally spring for a region-free DVD player), and on this episode so far, both the picture and sound are CRYSTAL-CLEAR! I'm so looking forward to the rest, including the first half of Season 2 which I just suffered thru the 2004 A&E box set of. (I blame myself for not doing more research earlier.)
In addition to the episode, I also watched the interview with Julian Bond & Leonard White, who explained how POLICE SURGEON came about, and, how it ended-- ABRUPTLY-- to avoid a LAWSUIT with the doctor that Bond had an agreement with. The doctor was getting most of the profits, but was unhappy that he wasn't getting any money from the writing, and insisted he write the show himself. ABC exec Sydney Newman told White the show "had to end" at 13 episodes, but only 3 weeks later, they'd concocted a replacment series for Ian Hendry-- THE AVENGERS. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I heard that story.
In an interview decades after the incident, Macnee described how Hendry instituted the process of re-writing the dialogue during rehearsals, to improve on the scripts, a method continued after he left, and also employed by Douglas Wilmer on the 1965 SHERLOCK HOLMES series (and later still on the Jeremy Brett HOLMES series).
Because so many of the "live-on-tape" (and actually "LIVE") episodes of Season 1 were lost, this is actually the first full Ian Hendry episode I've ever seen. Patrick Macnee had the week off, so the nurse got more screen-time to make up for it, and unusually for the show, the Police get directly involved in the mystery. I liked Carol, but I bet she didn't enjoy getting involved in dangerous situations. It strikes me that THE AVENGERS not only was ahead of the curve with regard to spy shows, but with Keel, also, DOCTOR shows. Imagine if Richard Kimble (David Jansen) had been helping the cops instead of being on the run from them for 4 years!
What a collection of familiar faces! The gang-leader was played by Edwin Richfield, who I always most remember as the Navy officer in the DOCTOR WHO story "The Sea Devils". His kill-crazy henchman was Kenneth J. Warren, who was the INSANE movie director in the very 1st AVENGERS episode I ever saw, the outragiously-loopy "Epic". The Police Sergeant was Ivor Salter, who played a similar character on THE SAINT. And among the circus clowns were not only Kenny Baker, but even more recognizable, Skip Martin ("Hop Toad" from Corman's THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH).
I just got the 2009 "Remastered" Season 2 box set from Studio Canal (Region 2 only, necessitating I finally spring for a region-free DVD player), and on this episode so far, both the picture and sound are CRYSTAL-CLEAR! I'm so looking forward to the rest, including the first half of Season 2 which I just suffered thru the 2004 A&E box set of. (I blame myself for not doing more research earlier.)
In addition to the episode, I also watched the interview with Julian Bond & Leonard White, who explained how POLICE SURGEON came about, and, how it ended-- ABRUPTLY-- to avoid a LAWSUIT with the doctor that Bond had an agreement with. The doctor was getting most of the profits, but was unhappy that he wasn't getting any money from the writing, and insisted he write the show himself. ABC exec Sydney Newman told White the show "had to end" at 13 episodes, but only 3 weeks later, they'd concocted a replacment series for Ian Hendry-- THE AVENGERS. I almost fell out of my chair laughing when I heard that story.
In an interview decades after the incident, Macnee described how Hendry instituted the process of re-writing the dialogue during rehearsals, to improve on the scripts, a method continued after he left, and also employed by Douglas Wilmer on the 1965 SHERLOCK HOLMES series (and later still on the Jeremy Brett HOLMES series).
Girl on the Trapeze
Prismark1028 February 2019
The earliest surviving episode of The Avengers. This is more like an action crime series which is a lot different from the episodes where Patrick Macnee was the lead as Steed.
Steed does not even feature in this one. Dr David Keel (Ian Hendry) comes across a young woman who threw herself from a bridge into the Thames. Despite not being in the river for long she later dies but not by drowning.
Keel thinks he has seen the dead woman before and finds out that she was a trapeze artist in a visiting east European circus. Keel visits the circus with his practice assistant Carol Wilson. They discover that the circus has kidnapped the daughter of a scientist who defected and plan to take her back.
It is good to see The Avengers before it morphed into the familiar series we all know so well. Keel is less of an adventurer and more grounded, assisting the police. There is a fight scene where everyone struggles to overcome the circus strongman.
It is shot differently, it feels at times that it was almost shot live like those early Hartnell episodes of Doctor Who.
Steed does not even feature in this one. Dr David Keel (Ian Hendry) comes across a young woman who threw herself from a bridge into the Thames. Despite not being in the river for long she later dies but not by drowning.
Keel thinks he has seen the dead woman before and finds out that she was a trapeze artist in a visiting east European circus. Keel visits the circus with his practice assistant Carol Wilson. They discover that the circus has kidnapped the daughter of a scientist who defected and plan to take her back.
It is good to see The Avengers before it morphed into the familiar series we all know so well. Keel is less of an adventurer and more grounded, assisting the police. There is a fight scene where everyone struggles to overcome the circus strongman.
It is shot differently, it feels at times that it was almost shot live like those early Hartnell episodes of Doctor Who.
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